Global business Intelligence specialist Creditsafe has revealed that it has been providing staff with access to a life coach for the past five years, and in that time has seen huge benefits to the business.
[aoa id=”1″]It was 2014 when senior members of the Creditsafe team identified key areas they wanted to improve on. Employee retention, engagement, productivity, creativity and to help staff overcome personal issues that were potentially affecting their performance. In a somewhat unconventional move, they decided to have a life coach available to all staff. Although there was initial scepticism amongst employees, once the benefits were seen, and the business grew, the uptake increased.[/aoa]
Dave Weller is a NLP practitioner who provides transformational change for the people and groups he works with. He was hired by Creditsafe to help individuals overcome obstacles in their lives and identify and achieve their goals and he’s available to anyone who wants to improve themselves.
Dave Weller says, “I think all companies should have a life coach, it’s still not the norm but it should be! So many people have preconceptions about what a life coach is or does and really what I do is help give people direction and coaching that they can use to transform their lives. Creditsafe generally tend to ask me to do 3-4 sessions with an individual, although everyone is different. I am a firm believer that if you have a solid foundation everything improves; I’m surprised more companies haven’t tapped into this. Employees that take advantage of professional training and coaching improve both their personal lives and their work lives so it’s better for business.”
Cathryn Sims, Group HR Director at Creditsafe is a big advocate of personal development.
“Initially from a HR perspective, we got in touch with Dave to undertake some NLP training which was focused on relationship dynamics, coaching and advanced communication skills. We then recognised that it would be really good for the business to do this on a more formal basis with individuals able to have direct access to Dave. Whatever is going on outside of work can have a huge impact on what goes on inside of work, therefor it makes sense for us to look into an initiative that could support employees in gaining the inner resources to they would need to thrive. The way I look at it is that we are all human and we don’t have a switch that we can turn off when we get in the building. It’s inevitable that work and home life overlap.
“There are a number of reasons staff might choose to talk to a coach; relationship problems, lack of motivation lack of confidence and communication issues. The decision to give teams across the business the opportunity to train, develop and realise and fulfil their goals with a strategy in place was an easy one for us. Having a life coach can be viewed as a big expense, but we look at it as an investment. We believe in our people and want them to be the best that they can be in and out of work, and you can’t put a price on that. When you lose people through staff turnover or absence it costs the company money so we use that money in advance and support people. We must be doing something right as a quarter of our people in the UK have been with us ten years or more.”
Matthew Miles who has worked at Creditsafe for seven years said, “I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Dave. With more people being aware of their own well-being, working with people like Dave, has become more accessible. The coaching sessions I’ve had, have really helped me put things in perspective. For me I’d say it has helped me be more present and to become more mindful. There is no doubt in my mind that coaching like this has helped me in my personal life as well as my work life.”
